The present invention is generally directed to the processing of food, and more particularly to a machine for cleaning shrimp.
The edible portion of a shrimp is covered with a shell and contains an inedible sand vein near its back. This vein must be removed before a shrimp is canned, frozen, or cooked and is also desirable to remove the shrimp meat from the shell.
Hand removal of the veins and shelling is tedious and inefficient and consequently is most undesirable when large numbers of shrimp must be handled. Many shrimps are seined from water in hot climates. Thus, the shrimps must be promptly processed in very large numbers. In order to reduce the required amount of hand work for removing the veins from shrimp and separating the meat and shells, various forms of shrimp cleaning machines have been devised. Satisfactory machines are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,850,761; 3,214,789; and 3,238,561. The machines disclosed in those patents include a carrier comprising a plurality of circularly arranged clamps which gripped the shrimps and transferred the shrimps along a circular path through various processing stations which deveined the shrimps and separated the shrimp meat from the shells. The processing station for separating the shrimp meat from the shells included a plurality of spikes or tines located adjacent to the carrier clamps at the bottom of the circular transfer path arc of the shrimps. The spikes or tines projected upwardly and were arranged to move in a vertical direction for penetrating the shrimp meat. As the spikes penetrated the shrimp meat, the spikes coacted with the revolving clamps which gripped the shrimp shells for separating the shrimp meat from the shells. After the meat separation, the spikes were retracted from the meat to thereby release the separated meat.
Although the shrimp cleaning machines described in the aforementioned patents provided substantial improvement over machines of the prior art, there remained room for improvement. For example, because the meat separator spikes engaged the shrimp meat at nearly a right angle to the shrimp carrier direction of motion, tearing of the meat during the initial phase of penetration sometimes developed. This of course is undesirable, inasmuch as it affects the appearance of the separated meat. Furthermore, the vertically moving spikes or tines did not always securely grip the shrimp meat to assure consistent separation of the shrimp meat and the shell.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide a new and improved shrimp processing machine.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a shrimp processing machine which includes an improved shrimp meat processing station for separating the shrimp meat from the shrimp shells.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide such a shrimp processing machine which includes a meat separating processing station which assures consistent separation of the shrimp meat from the shells while decreasing the likelihood of tearing and which therefore preserves the shape and structural integrity of the separated meat.
The invention therefore provides a shrimp processing machine comprising shrimp carrier means arranged to grip and transfer the shrimp in seratim along a vertical, circular path and a plurality of processing stations along the circular path. The processing stations include a meat separating station adjacent to a descending portion of the circular path. The meat separating station includes a plurality of spike members or tines arranged for movement into the shrimp and for coacting with the carrier means to separate the shrimp from the shrimp shells. Because the spike members penetrate the shrimp meat along a descending path of the shrimp, the spike members are provided with a better grip of the shrimp and the carrier is allowed to pull the shrimp shell downwardly away from the meat to assure more efficient and effective separation of the shrimp meat and shells.